Various painting tools are commonly used by homeowners and professionals for painting surfaces such as walls, ceilings, floors and other paintable surfaces. More specifically, various conventional paint trays are commonly used for holding paint which is distributable onto a paint roller cover installed onto a paint roller frame. While painting, a user will typically grasp a handle or extension pole attached to the paint roller frame and roll the paint roller cover within a paint tray to load paint onto the paint roller cover, thereby distributing the paint onto the paint roller cover before applying the paint onto a paintable surface. The use of conventional paint trays which are currently available on the market, however, often presents several limitations, challenges and disadvantages during painting. For example, conventional paint trays often have shallow or short wells formed therein which do not hold an adequate amount of paint, therefore making it necessary for a user to stop painting and keep refilling the well with additional paint more often than desired. Additionally, conventional paint trays are often flimsy and not well-constructed, making it difficult for a user to hold or transport the paint tray during use, which may further result in paint being spilled from the paint tray or the paint tray being dropped. Furthermore, conventional paint trays typically have flat ramps which, in conjunction with the back and forth rolling action of the paint roller cover along the ramp during loading, often cause excess paint to be distributed towards the ends and side edges of the paint roller cover. Such excess paint being distributed and collected at or near the ends and side edges of the paint roller cover may cause several unwanted problems or occurrences during painting. For example, when excess paint is distributed and collected at or near the ends and side edges of the paint roller cover, the paint loaded onto the paint roller cover may be applied unevenly onto the paintable surface, resulting in unwanted markings or paint lines (i.e. from the ends of the paint roller cover) appearing on the paintable surface. Furthermore, excess paint being distributed and collected at or near the ends and side edges of the paint roller cover may lead to unwanted paint splatter, paint dripping off the ends of the paint roller cover and/or paint roller frame (e.g. when the paint roller cover is turned vertically sideways when painting around baseboards) or may lead to unwanted masses of paint (e.g. “whips”) spinning or whipping off the ends of the paint roller cover and/or paint roller frame. Additionally, flat ramps of conventional paint trays often act against the nap of the paint roller cover in such a way as to flatten the nap and limit the amount of paint which may be absorbed by the paint roller cover, therefore making it necessary for a user to stop painting and keep reloading the paint roller cover more often than desired. Furthermore, conventional paint trays often lack adequate features capable of supporting a handle or other parts of a paint roller frame when the paint roller frame is not in use.
With the aforementioned limitations, challenges and disadvantages relating to the use of conventional paint trays in mind, there is a continuing unaddressed need for a paint tray which is well-constructed and more user-friendly than convention paint trays and which enables a user to paint with a paint roller frame and paint roller cover more efficiently, cleanly and productively while achieving improved paint roller cover performance and better paint application onto a painted surface.